Pirate Irony There Be Treasure — A split-screen composition featuring chaotic low-quality pirate imagery with pixelated skulls and golden treasure on the left

Pirate Irony There Be Treasure

2023Video / shitpost aestheticsemi-active

Published March 24, 2026

Also known as: Piratecore · There Be Treasure

Pirate Irony is a TikTok video trend from March 2023 that applies the chaotic, low-quality aesthetic of Hood Irony to pirate-themed content. Creators layer free-to-download greenscreen silhouettes, gold doubloon graphics, and treasure chest animations over shitpost-style edits, typically set to a pirate voice shouting "There be treasure!" The trend grew out of the Casino Irony (Gamblecore) subgenre and spread across TikTok, Twitter, and iFunny within weeks of its first post.

hood irony memes ironic memes tiktok sound trends green screen memes

Overview

Pirate Irony videos follow a specific visual formula borrowed from Hood Irony and Hood Lobotomy. They stack free greenscreen silhouettes (usually figures fighting or dancing), pirate-themed clip art like treasure chests, gold doubloons, and sailing ships, all layered over each other in deliberately chaotic compositions. The audio typically features royalty-free pirate voice sound effects, the most iconic being a gruff voice declaring "There be treasure!" Other common audio includes "Arg" exclamations, doubloon sound effects, and the SpongeBob SquarePants version of "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?"2.

The whole point is sensory overload. Like its parent genres, Pirate Irony leans into the "moldy" shitpost look where everything is low-resolution, over-compressed, and stacked so densely that individual elements blur together. The pirate theme gives the format a distinct identity within the broader irony posting landscape.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok (original videos), YouTube (source sound effect)
Key People
@nokia95015, @swashbuckler601
Date
2023

The trend traces back to TikToker @nokia95015, who posted the first Pirate Irony video on March 8, 20232. The creator had a history of making Gamblecore (Casino Irony) content and pivoted to pirate-themed visuals while keeping the same Hood Irony editing style. The video featured greenscreen silhouettes fighting, gold doubloons, treasure chests, a pirate ship sailing, and multiple layered sound effects including the now-signature "There be treasure!" shout and the SpongeBob rendition of "Drunken Sailor"2. Over the course of one month, that original post picked up roughly 436,500 plays and 99,800 likes.

The "There Be Treasure" sound effect itself predates the trend. It was pulled from a YouTube video titled "Pirate Sound Effect – 11 Version" uploaded by the channel Sound Effect Database on October 13, 20211. At the 0:08 mark, a male pirate voice says "There be treasure!" in the clip that would later define the genre's audio identity1.

How It Spread

The first known addition to the Pirate Irony aesthetic beyond the original creator came from TikToker @swashbuckler601, who posted a video on March 19, 2023, earning over 8,500 plays and 800 likes within a month. The following day, @swashbuckler601 uploaded a second video in the same style that hit 8,600 plays and 950 likes.

The cross-platform jump happened on March 29, 2023, when Twitter user @kickfliptomboys reposted @nokia95015's original video with a caption making fun of One Piece fans, comparing the edit to episode 30 of the pirate anime. That tweet pulled in about 4,600 likes over two weeks.

On April 4, 2023, iFunny user @ghoss reposted the Twitter content, racking up roughly 11,400 smiles in just eight days. The iFunny boost created a feedback loop back to TikTok, where new Pirate Irony videos began surfacing with higher engagement numbers than the originals.

How to Use This Meme

Creating a Pirate Irony video typically involves:

1

Start with a TikTok or short-form video editor

2

Layer multiple free greenscreen silhouettes (fighting figures, dancing characters) over each other

3

Add pirate-themed visual elements: treasure chests, gold doubloons, pirate ships, maps

4

Keep everything deliberately low-quality and over-compressed for the "moldy" aesthetic

5

Drop in the "There Be Treasure" sound effect and other pirate audio clips like "Arg" or doubloon noises

6

The SpongeBob "Drunken Sailor" song is a common background track

7

Stack as many elements as possible for maximum visual chaos

Cultural Impact

Pirate Irony fits into a broader trend of "-core" irony subgenres that emerged on TikTok in 2022-2023. Casino Irony (Gamblecore) came first, applying Hood Lobotomy aesthetics to gambling imagery, and Pirate Irony followed the same formula with a nautical twist. The format's success showed how quickly niche irony aesthetics could be reskinned for new themes while keeping the same underlying structure.

The One Piece connection through @kickfliptomboys' tweet also highlighted how anime fandoms and shitpost communities overlap, with the joke landing specifically because One Piece fans are known for intense devotion to a pirate-themed series.

Fun Facts

The "There Be Treasure" sound effect sat on YouTube for over a year before anyone used it in a meme. It was uploaded in October 2021 but didn't go viral until March 20231.

The original video by @nokia95015 got nearly 100,000 likes, but later videos by other creators that were boosted by the iFunny repost cycle actually outperformed it.

The iFunny repost by @ghoss earned almost 2.5 times more engagement (11,400 smiles) than the Twitter post it was copied from (4,600 likes), despite being a straight repost.

Derivatives & Variations

Casino Irony / Gamblecore:

The direct predecessor genre using slot machines, poker chips, and casino visuals in the same Hood Irony editing style.

Hood Lobotomy:

The parent aesthetic that all these "-core" irony subgenres evolved from, using low-quality shitpost edits with chaotic layering.

Frequently Asked Questions